MADD Seeks to Revive $105M Dram Shop Verdict Against Stadium Vendors



Mothers Against Drunk Driving, in seeking reinstatement of a record $105 million verdict against Giants Stadium vendors, wants courts in dram shop cases to allow evidence that goes beyond whether a particular patron was served while drunk.

Juries should be able to know whether a liquor establishment permitted a "culture of intoxication," MADD says in an amicus application to the New Jersey Supreme Court made public on Monday.

An appeals court ruled last August that such evidence can be irrelevant and prejudicial and ordered a new trial, reversing $35 million in compensatory damages and $70 million in punitives in the notorious case of six-year-old Antonia Verni. She was paralyzed in a crash with a fan who said Harry M. Stevens Inc. vendors continued to serve him after he was roaring drunk at a Giants-Saints game on Oct. 24, 1999.

The trial judge allowed evidence that vendors regularly served inebriated patrons and violated rules against selling more than two beers at once, perpetuating a rowdy and drunken culture.

But "culture of intoxication" testimony is not authorized by statute, and in this case it inflamed the jury and diverted its attention from the central issue: Was Daniel Lanzaro, the driver who hit Verni, served while intoxicated?

The plaintiff did present specific evidence about Lanzaro, but because there was so much about the culture, the jury couldn't be dispassionate, the appeals court said in Verni v. Harry M. Stevens Inc. 387 N.J. Super. 160 (App. Div. 2006).

In its amicus brief in support of Verni's petition for certification, MADD argues that the appeals court restrictions create an unfair double standard.

"Essentially, the Appellate Division's opinion creates an uneven playing field for drunk driving victims," according to the brief, by John Keefe Jr. of Keefe Bartels in Shrewsbury, N.J. "Under those restrictions, servers may present evidence of its policy and training, but the victim can't counter with evidence of violations of that policy or inadequate training."

The brief faults the appeals court for failing to distinguish Verni from two leading cases in which appeals courts prohibited testimony about a bar's reputation or evidence that a bar had served minors in the past, Showalter v. Barilari Inc. 312 N.J. Super. 494 (App Div. 1998) and Truchan v. Sayreville Bar and Res. Inc. 323 N.J. Super 10 (App. Div. 1998).

Unlike those cases, evidence of the vendors' alleged violations of their own procedures to prevent drunkenness was presented in addition to specific evidence about Lanzaro, according to the brief.

"The history of rowdy and drunken behavior of patrons at Giant Stadium, or at any entertainment venue for that matter, is relevant on the issue of whether alcohol beverage vendors should be more vigilant when they serve patrons once they enter the arena," the brief says.

It says the defense was allowed to present circumstantial evidence about its training of vendors to prove it was unlikely that Lanzaro would have been served if he exhibited visible signs of intoxication.

Verni should have the right to offer similar circumstantial evidence to refute the defense, the brief says.

Defense lawyer David Field of Lowenstein Sandler in Roseland, N.J., says he is preparing papers opposing MADD's intervention and will file them before the end of the week. He says MADD's brief not only replicates the arguments in the plaintiff's petition for review, it repeats mischaracterizations of the appellate division ruling.

Verni's lawyer, David Mazie of Nagel Rice & Mazie in Roseland, counters: "MADD has a fresh look at the issue and the fact that they are objecting to the same things doesn't affect their status as amicus. They have their own take and their own theory on why the appellate division was wrong and why cert should be granted."

"It is universally accepted that MADD speaks for innocent victims of drunk drivers like Antonia Verni and I think the court would be interested," Mazie says.

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